Three Comments

Life Goes On/Celebrating Lives:

April brought several birthdays to the Noisykid household. The loss of Theodore has made us cherish our living children so much more.

We celebrated the 18th birthday of Histor the Wise, otherwise known as the Oldest Noisykid, the Oldest Son Noisykid, and affectionately referred to by his little brothers and sisters as their big brother. We praise God for giving us such a wonderful and loving son. God bless you, Son!

April also was a milestone for Noisykid #6, also known as the youngest Michigan Noisykid. He turned 12 on the same night that featured our oldest daughter singing how she could do without Professor Henry Higgins.

Since Noisykid #6 turned 12, he joined our home school youth group, so look for him to perform in the near future at one of these Broadway Night features. God bless you, Son! We thank God for such a wonderful son.

The icons below are of the saints that Noisykid #1 and #6 are named after, in no particular order:

Such a sweet and loving smile on the face of St. Vincent de Paul!

The Other Hour of Mercy

From The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien:

‘Are you in pain, Frodo?’ said Gandalf quietly as he rode by Frodo’s side.

‘Well, yes I am,’ said Frodo. ‘….The wound aches, and the memory of darkness is heavy on me….’

‘Alas! There are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured,’ said Gandalf.

'I fear it may be so with mine,’ said Frodo. ‘There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?’

Gandalf did not answer.

I find myself awake a lot more throughout the night, especially during the hour from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. I started keeping a Rosary, one with big beads on it, on my nightstand so I can use it to pray the Rosary. Nothing induces sleep like praying the Rosary - just ask the wife and kids.

Nowadays sleep doesn't come as easy, and I sometimes complete five decades before sleep overtakes me. I figure that God is granting me a special mercy to pray for my living children NOW rather than when they are dead and gone. Either way I must pray for them; I would prefer to be proactive.

More than anything else I want my children(and my wife and I, and the whole extended family) to die a holy death.

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to pray with You in the middle of the night, the other Hour of Mercy.

Freaky Friday Mass Incident

Yes, those of you who have read this blog for a while may recognize the little pink pig at the top of this post, and how she only appears when I report on strange behavior - on or off the altar - at Friday Mass.

In this case, the Mass was on a Saturday - the first Saturday of May, last Saturday(how many times did I overuse the word 'Saturday' in this last sentence?). In particular, this Mass was the vigil Mass for Sunday, which will always be referred to in the United States as 'Ascension Thursday Sunday.' This is a Freaky thing in an of itself, as it shows the hardness of so many hearts in our country, where Catholics can't find the time to go to Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation because it falls on a weekday. They apparently don't have the time.

Ask them who got kicked off 'Dancing with the Stars,' and they can tell you....

...but I digress. What made this Mass Freaky was the music. It was awful. It was so awful that none of the parishioners joined in. So we got to listen to the man in the choir loft sing solo songs by such writers as Dan Schutte - a Jesuit who seems to have forgotten his vocation.

I can't put this kind of garbage on my blog, but HERE IS THE COMMUNION SONG WE HEARD. What is missing is the line containing the words 'devil on your back' which we heard right before receiving Our Lord in the Eucharist. Very distracting.

Thankfully the priest launched a pre-emptive strike for the recessional hymn, as we all joined in singing 'Regina Caeli.'